Six months following the defeat of Omega Shenron, Vegeta drags Trunks back into training using the recently mended, but unpredictable Room of Spirit and Time. Catastrophe follows as the room turns out to be far more dangerous than anyone ever thought. COMPLETE!

Set soon after GT's end,
Vegeta goes back into training is determined to get Trunks into shape
in the process using the recently mended, but unpredictable Room of
Spirit and Time with unfortunate results. (Reintroducing everyone's
favourite long-haired saiyan.)

Chapter 1: Back Into
Training

"And then I said to
her 'I know where you're coming from, but it's not you Maria,
it's me.' Classic! And she actually bought it too! Well, at least
I'm single again. Whoosh! The only thing she ever did was
complain!"

Ugh not again.
"Goten you're twenty seven." voiced
Trunks.

"Aaand?" Goten
failed to see his friend's point.

"Don't you think
you should settle down to one woman? I mean you've been repeating
the same process with different girls for years now."

"Ah, no way!" joked
Goten, shrugging off Trunks's suggestion with a laugh, "I'm
still young! I can be doing this for at least another decade before I
settle down."

Trunks politely laughed
along with Goten for humour's sake, privately theorising that he'd
be saying the exact same thing a decade later. Geez,
if he keeps this up he's going to end up like Master Roshi!

Trunks and Goten sat
chatting aimlessly in a downtown coffee bar that had lately become a
favourite haunt of theirs over the last few months. Often they'd
come here after Trunks had endured a boring day's work at Capsule
Corporation and Goten finished doing. . . Whatever the hell Goten did
in his free time; Trunks always wondered, as there was little to do
in the desolate mountain range and small cottage he called home with
Gohan out of the house. They'd gather here before heading out to
town in the evening to grab something to satisfy their saiyan
stomachs, reminisce about old times and regularly discuss Goten's
latest date.

It had been a quiet six
months since Goku defeated Omega Shenron and left the Earth on the
back of the great green dragon to places unknown. In that time little
had changed; the planet had been left in perfect harmony once again.
It was always strange with no renegade saiyans, world conquering
tyrants, destructive androids or bubble-gum looking fiends to try and
destroy them all, but a strange feeling in Trunks's gut told him
that the Earth would not remain safe forever. Despite this however,
as well as the fact their saviour was gone and the Dragonballs with
him, Trunks, Goten and indeed Gohan hadn't even thought about
training since Goku left.

Trunks considered.
Neither had he. In fact, thinking about it now he realised that he
hadn't ever seen his father for more than five minutes at a time
every odd week since Goku's departure. "To be honest Goten, I
really have no clue as to how my Father is," Trunks confessed, "The
only thing he ever does now is train, and even more so over these
last months. My best guess is that he's trying to master super
saiyan four without the use of blutz wave amplifier, it's like now
that he's the most powerful he has to make it stay that way,
because if trouble came without Goku or Picollo we'd all turn to
him first now. His pride would never allow him to let himself weaken
anyway."

Goten sobered all of a
sudden now that the conversation was more serious, speaking a little
more like his brother would, "I know what you mean. No offence, but
Vegeta's as proud as he is powerful."

Trunks only nodded mildly
in affirmation and proceeded to sipping his tall, thick chocolate
milkshake through a straw, enjoying the delightful taste this place
produced. Goten was right. Trunks regretted deeply that he'd
neglected his own training, indeed he was powerful, but that didn't
mean he now had to quit altogether. He just never had the time
anymore, with his job at Capsule Corporation weighing him down during
the days, he'd rather use his free time afterwards to hang out with
Goten and enjoy himself while he could. Still though, it worried him
sometimes. He'd strived always to make his father proud, and now he
could only wonder in dismay at what Vegeta thought of him, no doubt
he'd be ashamed; the Prince of all Saiyans having offspring that
pushed papers all day rather than fight. Trunks shuddered, no wonder
he had hardly seen him over the last months.

"So anyway, how's
Pan? It's been a long time since we spoke." quizzed Trunks. It
was true, like Vegeta he'd seen little of her except from at the
Briefs's and Son's dinners, as well as Uub and Krillin, just what
were they so busy with? Krillin he could understand; he had a family
now and was getting too old to be active all the time, but Uub and
Pan? He used to see Uub all the time.

"Well, Pan's in
training." revealed Goten, much to the shock of Trunks, he figured
Uub would be, but Pan as well?

"What for?" The
lavender haired saiyan dared to ask. Pan trained regularly, but
unlike Vegeta she knew how to separate it from her public life.

"The World Martial
Arts tournament, Thirty Second I think. It's in three weeks, didn't
you know?"

Trunks was shocked; to
Goten's amazement, no, he didn't know about the upcoming
tournament. Well, he knew the date, but he never realised that it was
so close by; he'd been so caught up with things at work lately. It
would explain Pan and Uub's training, but bothered him most was why
Goten himself wasn't in training, it seemed a prime opportunity for
he and his family to get some easy money, as he doubted Vegeta would
be competing, which meant that all the other fighters would be around
Goten's level. As a super saiyan two the only real concern he had
was Uub, and Trunks was confident that at full power Goten could
outlast him.

"No, I didn't,"
Trunks confessed, rather irritably. He was annoyed that Goten hadn't
informed him sooner, then again it was his own fault for forgetting,
"Are you entering?" he asked.

"Think so, If Gohan's
out of the picture it should be no problem. The only thing I'm
worried about is Uub though, he's probably far stronger now, and if
he's done training for six months straight then I don't think I'd
stand a chance."

Trunks reflected, once
again Goten was right. Trunks, Goten and Uub may have all been of a
similar power level six months ago, but that was more than enough
time for Uub to turn the tables completely.

"Hey I know!" Goten
exclaimed, slamming his hands down on the table in a moment of sudden
eureka, "Why don't we enter the tournament as Gotenks!? It'll
be great! We'd win no problem! We could probably even take down my
brother with that kind of strength, I doubt there are any rules
against it! I mean technically we'd be one person!"

"Are you serious?"
questioned Trunks unbelievably. He and Goten hadn't fused in years
now, and at first the idea seemed ridiculous to him, but the more he
thought about it the more logical it sounded. He grinned smugly, an
inherited trait from his father, Gotenks was more powerful than both
of them put together, but the idea of entering him into the
tournament reminded him of when they were kids and entered the adult
division stacked on top of each other as 'Mighty Mask', only this
time they'd actually be as one body.

"Yeah, It'll be
great! We enter as Gotenks, split and refuse before every match and
split the winnings down the middle!"

"Hmm," Trunks
considered briefly, "we'd have to get some serious training done
first, I doubt we could still pull off the fusion dance without
practice, and I don't know if I could find time to train anymore."

"Is that so?"
Interrupted a gruff voice from behind them, its brashness scaring the
hybrid saiyans causing them to stiffen up to attention in an instant.
Goten and Trunks whirled around in their seats, milkshakes in hand to
see Vegeta standing firmly with his arms crossed at the double glass
doors of the cafe. Trunks immediately felt like an idiot in front of
his father, lounging with the cocktailed, thick milkshake in his
hand, but the biggest question that nagged him was how long had he
been stood there listening to them? Trunks prayed desperately that he
hadn't heard their comments about him, but either way, seeing them
both now, he knew for sure that Vegeta must've been terribly
ashamed of him.

"Father!" exclaimed
Trunks nervously, trying his best not to stammer, "What're you
doing here?"

"Uh excuse me sir,
excuse me!" nagged a voice from Vegeta's left side, and both
Trunks and Goten slapped hands to their foreheads, embarrassed
completely by what was to come.

"Excuse me sir,"
continued the waiter, ignoring the fact that Vegeta refused to even
acknowledge his presence, and simply stared ahead at the two half
saiyans, "you have to order something here you know. Sir? Sir?-"

"Quiet!" Vegeta
barked, silencing the man in a single word, "I'm just here to
pick up my son and his friend."

And his friend?
Pondered Goten fearfully, oh great, what's
he got in store for me?

"Well that may be the
case sir but you can't just show up here without ordering
anything."

Vegeta snarled angrily
with a deep, throaty growl. This fat, flamboyant waiter was beginning
to annoy him, and part of the full blooded saiyan wanted to blast him
into oblivion, but he'd learned to control himself over the years
he'd spent on earth.

"Sir? Sir? Sir?"

"Argh fine!" The
saiyan finally resolved, knowing full well that if this continued
he'd end up hitting the man, "Get me a soda and shut the hell
up!"

The waiter hesitated
for a moment, completely astounded by Vegeta's rudeness, but then
he took a better look at the man's appearance. He may have been
shorter than he, but he had a body that looked as though it were
chiselled out of marble, with the most refined biceps he'd ever
seen. The saiyan once again wore his traditional blue battle outfit;
he'd abandoned the saiyan armour but instead wore an identical deep
cobalt vest to the one he'd used against Majin Buu, with pearl
white gloves and shiny, polished battle boots to go with it. His hair
protruded out at least eight inches above his head and formed into
refined widow's peak at the hairline, thick and coal black like his
eyes, icy cold and remorseless. Since Omega he'd allowed his hair
to grow back to its original length after experiencing a huge wave of
saiyan patriotism after Kakarot's disappearance. Noticing these
frightening features the waiter swiftly bowed and scurried off,
leaving Vegeta with a satisfied grin across his still youthful face.

"Hey Vegeta, come to
join us?" Goten laughed. He switched to a more playful, joking tone
almost instantly to cope with Vegeta's constantly aggressive mood,
pretending he hadn't heard the 'and his friend' comment.

Vegeta approached the
two sat the bar wordlessly and stood before them. His eyes looked
them quickly up and down with disapproval as a look of disgust
flashed across him. Was he sizing them up? Looking for a fight? Goten
certainly hoped not, but as for Trunks, even in these unfortunate
circumstances he was glad to see his father yet again, looking better
than he had in years. No one looking at the group from across the bar
(there were many after Vegeta's outburst) would've guessed that
Trunks was Vegeta's son, physically they looked around the same age
due to the full blooded saiyan's extended youth, though Vegeta's
eyes carried the wisdom and experience behind them that one could
only glean from a veteran saiyan life.

"I've come for no
such thing," declared Vegeta in response to Goten's proposal,
"you two are coming with me, immediately."

Goten and Trunks exchanged
nervous glances and the black haired half-blood gulped with fright.
Naturally, he tried to de-escalate the situation. His inherited jolly
demeanour meant that he hated those awkward moments, especially now
that Vegeta was facing him with that hard scowl he put on at all
times.

"Well, just let me
finish this and we'll be on our w-"

"Now."
Vegeta butted in firmly.

"Okay, okay," Goten
waved up his hands in surrender and stood up from the low barstool.
He was much taller than Vegeta, but that only meant that an uppercut
from the Prince would gain full momentum before it reached his jaw,
he gulped.

"Here's your order
sir." The squeaky voiced, rotund waiter reappeared at Vegeta's
right side holding a round black tray with nothing more than a soda
can on it.

Vegeta thrust a couple
of notes onto the tray and snatched the drink. He knew that he'd
paid far too much for what he ordered, but it was nothing for loaded
funds of Capsule Corporation that his wife ran, and he couldn't be
bothered sorting the money out. "Keep the change." he growled,
before immediately switching his attention, "Come on Trunks, we're
leaving."

Trunks watched in
bewilderment, his father had never done anything like this before, it
was also the only time he'd opened his mouth to say more than two
words to him in six months. Why the change now? Was he so sick of
having a weakling son that he'd decided to change things by force?
And just where were they going? Either way, a chance to actually
spend some time with him for once was an exciting prospect. He'd
given up on making Vegeta proud as his life's goal as he knew that
the saiyan would never be fully satisfied with even his own power let
alone his son's, but he still tried hard to impress him when an
opportunity presented itself.

"Right." Trunks
smiled and got to his feet before Vegeta turned and led them out of
the building.

"I say it time and
time again, you all have gotten soft. Just because this is a time of
peace it doesn't mean you shouldn't be ready." Vegeta lectured
as they passed through the glass double doors, "Over time our
enemies only ever become stronger and stronger: Freeza, Cell, Majin
Buu, the Tuffles, Omega. Each is more powerful than the last, and
instead of preparing for this you choose to waste your time and
become weaker, the exact opposite of what you should be doing."

Goten laughed, "Hey
Vegeta, you forgot yourself from that list."

Vegeta only snarled
viciously without words as Goten reminded him of how he was when he
first came to the planet Earth, what a fool he had been.

"Sorry, sorry."
apologised Goten yet again.

"You are lucky you're
the son of Kakarot, boy."

"Sorry." he
repeated.

Trunks chuckled to
himself quietly, his father would never lay a finger on Goten out of
respect for Goku, which meant that the half saiyan could say pretty
much whatever he wanted and get away with it in an instant. If he'd
said that to Vegeta he'd probably received
at least a combination of punches for his quick wit.

Vegeta cast his eyes up
into the sky and took off north after pausing for a moment to get his
bearings. Trunks and Goten immediately followed suit, flying right
behind him to form an arrow shape. All around people on the streets
gasped and pointed after them into the sky, but the warriors paid no
heed to them as usual, they were used to it by now. After seeing
flying people at almost every world tournament in thirty years they
knew such phenomena existed, but it was still rather exciting to see
someone fly for real.

For a few minutes the
saiyans flew through the clouds over the western mountain regions
following Vegeta. Neither of the two younger fighters knew exactly
where they were going, but Trunks felt he had a good idea.

"It's all been
sorted; you'll only be gone for one day, that's all. After that
you can do as you please." replied Vegeta coldly, he certainly was
grumpy today, but then again he always was.

Trunks nodded, a day
was long enough; he could handle that. What did he hope to achieve in
just one day though? Either way he accepted that there was no way out
of this training and he'd just have to go with his father's
wishes.

"Can I go get my
sword then?" Trunks proposed, he'd never had a chance to properly
use Tapion's sword in battle since he'd received it. Back in the
day he'd been too small to wield it, but now that he was the right
size no opportunities presented themselves.

"Hmph, sure."
Vegeta grunted, "We'll meet you there." deep down he was glad,
and proud, that his son was once again displayed some interest in
training, he'd got that sword years ago but not used it once in
battle since then.

Trunks still didn't know
exactly where 'there' was, but after he retrieved the sword from
home he could just easily follow Vegeta and Goten's ki signals to
guide him there. He veered off to the right, leaving Goten on his own
as he flew back home.

"So Vegeta, where
exactly are we going?" asked Goten after several awkward moments of
steely cold silence.

"You'll see."
Vegeta replied. Unknown to Goten from behind him he had a smug grin
on his face as though he had a crafty trick up his sleeve. From this
angle the son of Goku could see that Vegeta had re-grown his tail,
confirming Trunks's suspicions about him trying to reach the fourth
level, as he'd need one if he planned on doing it alone.

The air became much
chiller as they rose up through the damp, claustrophobic clouds
overhead; once or twice Goten even lost almost lost sight of his
saiyan acquaintance. Why were they flying so high? Surely he could've
got them to where they needed to go without going to this altitude
where the clouds soaked his clothes and the wind interfered with his
styled hair. Unless. . .

"Vegeta!" exclaimed
Goten with a gasp, having finally figured it out, "We're going to
the Lookout aren't we?"

After a few seconds of
silence the man responded, "We're almost there."

Vegeta's harsh reply
told Goten that his guess was correct, where else could they be
going? Sure enough within another minute they'd passed right by
Korin and Yajirobe's place and arrived on the cold surface of the
Lookout.

The Lookout had been
exactly how he remembered it, especially since Dende and Mr. Popo
waited patiently at beside one of the pillars that supported the
shrine-like building on the front half. The Lookout itself was a
half-sphere shaped structure floating miles above the surface of the
Earth. It was the home of the planet's guardian Dende and his
faithful servant Mr. Popo. From up here the guardian could see all
that was ill on his beloved planet and once he did, he informed the
Z-Fighters immediately, is that why they were here? Was something
wrong?

Vegeta led the way with
Goten following nervously behind him along the clean, white tiled
surface over towards the main building. Dende rushed out to meet
them, looking far happier to see them than Vegeta did. It had been so
long since Goten had been up here, in fact the last time he'd been
up here for more than a few hours he'd been just seven years old
and had learned to fuse with Trunks in the Room of Spirit and Time.
He pondered on this for a second before switching his attention to
why they were actually here, and then it hit him.

'You'll only be
gone for one day, that's all' Vegeta's words echoed back and
forth in his mind over and over. A year's worth of training in one
day. Last time he entered though, Picollo had seen Gotenks losing the
fight against Buu and in an act of selflessness blasted the only
entrance, only for Buu to escape by tearing a hole in space just
moments later. They escaped using the same way, but that didn't
mean they could re-enter again, he presumed it to be lost forever,
unless by some miracle Dende had restored it.

Vegeta reached Dende,
and rudely as usual, he decided to skip with the formalities, moving
straight on to the main question he had in mind. "Is it ready?"

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.